The present invention is directed to equipment used with air conditioning systems for recovering, recycling, and recharging refrigerant, and more particularly to a device that allows the charging of a dye containing refrigerant with such recovery, recycling, and recharging equipment.
Environmental concerns over the release of refrigerants into the atmosphere have led to devices for recovery, purification and storage of used refrigerants from air conditioning (a/c) systems for later reuse. Examples of such devices, referred to herein as Recover/Recycle/Recharge (R/RRR) equipment are discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,172,562 and 4,805,416. Such devices are well known for use with mobile a/c systems (e.g. automobiles) and may themselves be provided as portable units. These devices recover and purify the refrigerant by use of an internal recycling process, and store the refrigerant in an internal recovery tank. This type equipment can also charge recycled refrigerant back into the air conditioning systems from the internal recovery refrigerant tank.
Another advance to help control the release of refrigerant to the atmosphere is the addition of a dye to the refrigerant to simplify leak detection. One such product is Genetron(copyright) 134aUV which is a pre-mixture of refrigerant R-134a, an EPA approved replacement refrigerant for R-12, and a refrigerant soluble ultraviolet dye.
Dye containing refrigerant such as Genetron 134aUV was originally intended to be charged using conventional automotive charging equipment such as charging meters (i.e. weigh scales) and dial-a-charge charging cylinders. These products were not intended to be used as make-up refrigerant for the R/R/R equipment commonly used in the industry. This type R/R/R equipment charges refrigerant from the internal recovery tank to the a/c system using various technologies, e.g., weigh scale technology and dial-a-charge. The internal recovery tank holds a mixture of both the recovered refrigerant as well as the virgin make-up refrigerant. During the charging process, the refrigerant in the internal tank, both the recovered and virgin refrigerants, are exposed to the internal recycling process which removes the UV dye. The end result is that the a/c system is charged with refrigerant absent the UV dye.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a device allowing the use of dye containing refrigerant with R/R/R equipment.
Another object is to provide a device that is easy to use with existing R/R/R equipment.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description that follows, and in part will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon review of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention.
The present invention provides a device that allows virgin refrigerant, e.g., dye containing refrigerant, to be added to an air conditioning system in conjunction with R/R/R equipment. In broad terms, the invention provides a device having a main valve. The main valve has a first inlet for receiving the virgin refrigerant from a source of virgin refrigerant, a second inlet for connection to the recovery system and for receiving refrigerant therefrom, and an outlet for connection to the air conditioning system to deliver refrigerant thereto. The main valve is operable to provide at least two flow paths that are exclusive of each other, a first flow path from said first inlet to said outlet, and a second flow path from said second inlet to said outlet.
A second valve is connected to said first inlet and is configured for connection to the source of virgin refrigerant. The second valve is operable between open and closed positions for controlling the flow of fluid from the source of virgin refrigerant through the second valve to the main valve.
A hose connected to the outlet of the main valve can be used to connect the device to the air conditioning system. Likewise, a hose can be used to connect the device to the R/R/R equipment.